The teaching and practice of the game of tennis is usually accompanied by the repetitive hitting of tennis balls delivered by a tennis instructor or a practice machine, and results that a great number of tennis balls are spread over a tennis court surface. It requires an excessive amount of stoop labor to retrieve these tennis balls from the tennis court surface into a bucket type container. To minimize such stoop labor, an improved tennis ball retriever was introduced which automatically retrieved and stored tennis balls.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,371,950, to Stap, teaches a tennis ball retriever and storage unit which includes a receptacle with a grate forming a bottom wall for the receptacle. The grate has a plurality of fixed bars laterally spaced apart a distance slightly less than a diameter of a tennis ball so that a tennis ball is squeezed between the bars to gain entry into the receptacle. A person carrying such a receptacle pushes its bottom against the tennis balls resting on the court surface to automatically squeeze them into the receptacle.
Similar tennis ball retrievers have been also recently available. For example, one such tennis ball retriever includes a pair of hinged handles mounted on a receptacle which is hinged to swing downwardly below the receptacle to provide supports to raise the receptacle above a tennis court surface. One handle is hinged to one side wall and another to the opposite side wall. The handles extend upwardly from respective side walls toward each other to meet at a center position above the receptacle.
Conventional tennis ball retriever and container units are typically constructed of a Plurality of metal rods or wires which are integrally connected, such as by spot welding, to form a rigid box-like integral structure. Accordingly, it is not possible to replace any damaged parts thereof. Further, such a bulky box-like structure renders its packaging, shipping and handling processes relatively expensive and requires relatively wide storage and shelf space at retailer shops.